Froh! Froh!

Glad, as His suns fly
Through the Heaven's glorious design,
Run, brothers, your race,
Joyful, as a hero to victory
[Schiller, from Ode to Joy]

Last night's SSO performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony must surely be the best SSO concert I have ever attended, and I am talking about almost 2 decades of being a regular of the orchestra.

I am glad I managed to win the tickets from 92.4 FM as it was completely sold out as early as a month and a half before the concert date.

Although the tenor took the Alla Turca section a tad too fast and the flute accompaniment got carried away and played a too loudly, it did not diminish my enjoyment of it. Somebody in the audience really did not like the 2nd movement and hissed at the end of it. True, it was a bit dodgy at times, but I honestly did not find it that bad. And the bass singer (I was astounded how young he is) at only 32 did not have as rich a voice as an older singer might have, but he was good! And one thing is confirmed...Asian singers seem to always produce a 'flat', tinny sound instead of the rich timbre of European singers.

However, despite these flaws, never before has the SSO succeeded in moving me so; at times nearly bringing tears to my eyes with the delicate lyrical section by the double basses and celli and at other times sending my heart racing by the rousing tutti. The choir, despite the high As did not sound like they were screaming as I had feared and the overall effect was astounding and majestic. My heart soared with the choir

Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Freude, schöner Götterfunken

It was music making at its best.

Did you know?

There is no synonym for the word synonym? Hahah!

"Noises"

Today's lesson on communication noises was interesting.

My students pointed out how Psychological Noise (which include Cultural and Religious bias) can be a problem even with a simple thing like a Zebra crossing. To us in Singapore, a zebra crossing is a zebra crossing, for crossing the road. In Africa, zebra crossing may mean an actual herd running past you.

The word 'malu' means 'shame' in Malay. 'ma lu' in Chinese means 'road'. So the Road to Shame must surely be the Malu Ma lu.

Likewise, dog is 'anjing' in Malay, but 'an jing' is 'peace' in Chinese. So is a quiet dog an 'anjing an jing'?

What took the cake must be the response from the class when I told them how my late mentor Dr Douglas once remarked that exclamation marks should never be used 'unless it is an actual ejaculation.' I pointed out to the class that the Biggles books, written during the early part of the 20th century for boys were full of 'ejaculations' of the verbal type.

Din, my student pointed out that is must surely be a 'semen-tic' noise.

Very punny.